The Light at the End of the Tunnel . . . or Cliff

Abstract

Earlier this month, the Federal Government released thousands of regulatory pages explaining the many ways in which Medicare providers will get paid and penalized over the next few years. The same week, the Federal Government released regulations for skilled nursing facilities, inpatient psychiatric facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, hospices, and federally qualified health centers.

The article juxtaposes the complexity of health care regulations with Executive Order 13563, which states that each of the federal agencies “identify and consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public,” as well as “consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.” As another incantation of this Executive Order appeared in a federal regulation recently (“Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Regulatory Provisions to Promote Program Efficiency, Transparency, and Burden Reduction; Part II”), this article highlights some provisions therein.